Brrrr

 It is pretty dang cold here right now about 16 (about -9c)degrees or so in the morning and only about 28-30 (-1c) degrees in the afternoon, I know the Canadians are laughing at me right now....

Here are some pics from Thanksgiving.

 Addilyn enjoying her pie.

 We went to Zoo Lights these are some of the only good pics I got, I didn't want to take my hands out of my pockets to take any pictures it was COLD!!

 The boys before church on Sunday. I originally didn't match to mean them and then when I realized two out of 3 matched I got Kessler dressed like them.

 Only 19 days till Christmas, almost done with my Christmas shopping, I have done a lot of it online this year, and it is like Christmas to me when packages are on my door of stuff I have ordered for the kids or others.

YEAH!!!

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Wrapping this month up is bitter sweet, I love November and I love December even more.
A few things that I am thankful for, that I have not been able to touch on yet.

My in laws, I always have a good time when we are able to get together and sometimes makes me sad that we don't see each other more.
I had an intention of going down the list and listing all the wonderful things about every single one of them, but for time unfortunately I couldn't be more blessed with the wonderful in laws I have. I love Ben's sisters they each have such wonderful qualities. I am also so lucky to have so many other brothers, I grew up with one brother and always wanted another brother and I got 5 of them when I married Ben. All of them crack me up and make me smile in there own way. I love their wives, we are so lucky to have one another and miss everyone so much.

I am thankful for my father in law, he is such a personable person, I love the talks we have and insight he has into many situations.
I am also thankful for my mother in law, she is always thinking of others and works her fanny off when we are all together and loves the grandchildren and always has wonderful things for them.

I am so glad I had the opportunity this month to reflect on the things I am thankful for, the last thing for the month is my membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It grounds me and has taught me what is really important in life, I love to serve others and am so thankful for the callings I have had, they each in there own way have taught me much.

So for the month of Christmas the gratitude will be much for my Savior, His humble birth, the blessings I am blessed with and the opportunity to live on this earth at this time.

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I do have four days worth of things that I am thankful for.

First on my mind, I was pulled over yesterday as we were pulling into our neighborhood. The police officer informed me I was speeding which I may have been I was in autopilot driving home with the kids. He took my drivers license back to his car, Cooper was somewhat traumatized telling me that I was going to be "under the rest". And kept asking me what was taking him so long, he commented that he must be reading my license very slowly, I thought that was funny.
The cop didn't give me a ticket and I am extremely thankful for that, it definitely would have cramped my spending money for Christmas.

Ben and his amazing work ethic, I have commented many times about that but he never ceases to amaze me.
Wednesday he went to work at 2pm and got home at 6am the next day slept for most of the day, ate Thanksgiving dinner and went back to work at 9pm and worked until 10am today, slept until 4pm and then went back to work at 5pm today and will be there until midnight or so.
Crazy retail life!

I love online Christmas shopping!! I love searching deals and making sure I have it all planned out what I am going to get the kids.

I am thankful for nice people, When Ben and I were talking about a possible move to Canada we were talking about what we would do with the dogs. Well we decided it would be best to put Lulu up for adoption on a local classified website, (even though we found out we were not moving) well we had lots of people respond and adopted her to a cute local family. The husband wanted a not so "wimpy" dog. The had a lab mix that I think was pretty mellow. I was super worried that she would be mean to the other dog and she was very aggressive at first, I realized she was just trying to protect me because their dog was friendly and trying to go up to everyone who would pet him.
Lulu left with them for a trial period and they called me and told me that she was doing really great. They live on a half acre and take their dogs to a ranch they have during the summer.

I have been sad knowing that she is not here, but it is better for our family. Incredible is a little lost but is loving the extra attention and probably doesn't miss how much Lulu would try to play with him.
We love Lulu and are hopeful that she will be happy with another family.

21

I am thankful today for sisters.

20

Today I am thankful for some little boys with crazy, amazing imaginations. It is never a dull moment around here.

16,17,18,19

Whew, things are not turning out like I wanted them to this month and my blog is suffering as well.
As some of you know Ben is from Canada and Target is opening 200 new stores over a few years and Ben applied to be one of the first store managers to move up there and we obviously would move with him.
He went through two interviews and felt the first one went bad and the 2nd went well.
Well......he didn't get chosen to go up there, to be honest I was completely shocked he didn't get it, I thought since he was a Canadian national he would have a good chance and I was getting excited about the possibility of going on this new adventure.
I think I might have been more sad than Ben was, but he doesn't have roller coaster emotions to begin with so I didn't expect him to burst into tears and cry on my shoulder.
But with the spirit of the month, it would be silly not to be thankful for the opportunity he had to interview, he needs all the practice he can get, also we are thankful that he has a good job and he likes his job.
In spite of the "bad" news Ben did get some good news, he was nominated to go onto something called ADP, it is a process in which he will go through a series of interviews and then prep sessions, once he completes the sessions they will send him to a final interview to be passed of as a DTL (he is a STL a DTL is the manager of a few STL's) . However that news wasn't Ben's idea of good news, he hates interviewing because he thinks he stinks at it.
We are thankful for good jobs, jobs that afford us some travel perks and a steady income.

15

Maybe it is a theme for the day, but I just read on someone else's daily Thanksgiving about friends.
My life has gone in many different directions with friends, but the one thing that has never changed it what and how much I learn from my friends...... from being a better mom, to more fashionable, more spiritual, I could go on and on.
I know that some friends are lifelong friends and some are not, some friendships that end might be a blessing in disguise and some friendships are just blessings.

I guess I will get on my little soapbox about being friendly, and please understand I don't do these all of the time either, but here we go.
If you see someone in the store, why pretend like you don't see them, why is it so hard to smile and wave?
If you see someone at church why is it so hard to pay someone a compliment?
When walking down a hallway with someone you don't know how come it is hard to say Good Morning or hello and smile?
Even if you don't say something to someone you are walking past, how about a smile?

I learned a really good lesson once at work, as the passengers were deplaning a was standing there with a straight face saying goodbye and thank you and a man walked up to me as he was about to walk off the plane and said something to the extent, that "it wouldn't kill you to smile". I will never forget that. EVER. I think about that a lot and the way our body language and words affect other people.

Some of us have lots of friends- some of us have a few friends-some of us want more friends and some of us feel like they don't need friends,  I know I have felt all of those feelings but the feeling today and many days is I am thankful for every one of my friends, each has more positives than negatives and I know that my friends make me want to be a better person and I would be sad if they didn't know that I was thankful for them.